Esther Perel: Rethinking infidelity ... a talk for anyone who has ever loved
Esther Perel: Repensando la infidelidad... una charla para quien haya amado alguna vez
Psychotherapist Esther Perel is changing the conversation on what it means to be in love and have a fulfilling sex life. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
what exactly do we mean?
¿qué queremos decir exactamente?
paid sex, a chat room,
es sexo de pago, es una sala de chat,
out of boredom and fear of intimacy,
por aburrimiento y miedo a la intimidad,
and hunger for intimacy?
y ansias de intimidad?
the end of a relationship?
al final de una relación?
I have traveled the globe
he viajado por el mundo
with hundreds of couples
con cientos de parejas
of their relationship,
a una pareja su relación
very identity: an affair.
identidad: una aventura.
act is so poorly understood.
de este acto extremadamente común.
who has ever loved.
que haya amado alguna vez.
since marriage was invented,
que se inventó el matrimonio,
that marriage can only envy,
envidiar la tenacidad de la infidelidad.
the only commandment
del único mandamiento
just for thinking about it.
solo por pensar en ello.
what is universally forbidden,
lo universalmente prohibido
practically had a license to cheat
prácticamente licencia para engañar
of biological and evolutionary theories
biológicas y evolutivas
is as old as adultery itself.
tan antiguo como el adulterio en sí.
under the sheets there, right?
realmente bajo las sábanas, ¿no?
is to boast and to exaggerate,
por alardear y exagerar,
is to hide, minimize and deny,
por ocultar, minimizar y negar.
that there are still nine countries
que todavía hay nueve países
asesinadas por descarriarse.
one person for life.
una persona de por vida.
una persona cada vez.
probablemente han dicho:
por primera vez.
sexuales con otras personas.
had nothing to do with love.
no tenía nada que ver con el amor.
en la fidelidad de la mujer
since I arrived at this conference.
que llegué a esta conferencia.
keeps on expanding:
sigue en expansión:
secretly active on dating apps.
y activamente en aplicaciones de citas.
universally agreed-upon definition
universalmente acordada
from 26 percent to 75 percent.
del 26 % al 75 %.
walking contradictions.
entre contradicciones.
that it is terribly wrong
que está terriblemente mal
about having an affair,
sobre tener una aventura,
amount of us will say
cantidad de nosotros dirá
would do if we were having one.
en caso de tener una aventura.
of an affair --
which is the core structure of an affair;
la esencia de una aventura;
to one degree or another;
en un grado u otro;
the kiss that you only imagine giving,
es tal que un beso imaginado
for love, not the other person.
del amor, no la otra persona.
difficult to keep a secret.
guardar un secreto.
such a psychological toll.
semejante tributo psicológico.
una empresa económica,
our economic security.
nuestra seguridad económica.
is a romantic arrangement,
es un acuerdo romántico,
our emotional security.
nuestra seguridad emocional.
recurrir al adulterio;
we sought pure love.
buscábamos el amor puro.
el amor en el matrimonio,
infidelity hurts differently today.
la infidelidad duele diferente hoy.
in which we turn to one person
que nos volcamos a una persona
interminable de necesidades:
my intellectual equal.
mi par intelectual.
the grand ambition of love.
la gran ambición del amor.
infidelity has always been painful,
la infidelidad siempre ha sido dolorosa,
who we were as a couple, who I was.
quiénes éramos como pareja, quién era yo.
a crisis of identity.
confianza, una crisis de identidad.
pregunta.
en alguien de nuevo?"
Heather is telling me,
about her story with Nick.
on his iPad with the boys,
en su iPad con los chicos,
appear on the screen:
we just saw each other.
that her father had affairs,
que su padre tuvo aventuras,
one little receipt in the pocket,
un papel en el bolsillo,
on the collar.
en el cuello.
and desires expressed.
y deseos expresados.
of Nick's two-year affair
de la aventura de Nick
are death by a thousand cuts.
es la muerte por desangrado.
that we're dealing with these days.
a la que nos enfrentamos hoy.
fidelity with a unique fervor.
nuestra pareja con un fervor único.
been more inclined to stray,
tan propensos a descarriarnos
entitled to pursue our desires,
derecho a cumplir nuestros deseos,
where I deserve to be happy.
merecemos ser felices.
because we were unhappy,
porque éramos infelices,
because we could be happier.
podríamos ser más felices.
aparejada la vergüenza
cuando uno puede partir
hablar con sus amigos
will judge her for still loving Nick,
por seguir amando a Nick,
she gets the same advice:
recibe el mismo consejo:
Nick would be in the same situation.
Nick estaría en la misma situación.
is that if someone cheats,
que si alguien engaña,
in your relationship or wrong with you.
o uno tiene algo mal.
can't all be pathological.
no pueden todas tener patologías.
have everything you need at home,
en casa todo lo que necesita,
to go looking elsewhere,
en otro sitio,
a thing as a perfect marriage
el matrimonio perfecto
la pasión de explorar.
has a finite shelf life?
tiene una vida útil finita?
that even a good relationship
una buena relación
that I actually work with
con la que trabajo
deeply monogamous in their beliefs,
monógamas en sus creencias,
actually been faithful for decades,
sido fieles desde hace décadas,
of longing and loss.
de añoranza y pérdida.
you will often find
siempre encontrarán
for an emotional connection,
de conexión emocional,
for autonomy, for sexual intensity,
de intensidad sexual,
lost parts of ourselves
de nosotros mismos
vitality in the face of loss and tragedy.
de cara a la pérdida y la tragedia.
another patient of mine, Priya,
what was expected of her:
lo que se esperaba de ella:
who removed the tree from her yard
que quitó el árbol de su patio
he's quite the opposite of her.
él es todo lo contrario a ella.
the adolescence that she never had.
es la adolescencia que nunca tuvo.
that when we seek the gaze of another,
cuando buscamos la mirada del otro,
that we are turning away from,
de nuestra pareja,
we have ourselves become.
que nos hemos convertido.
looking for another person,
en busca de otra persona,
looking for another self.
who have affairs always tell me.
que tiene aventuras siempre me dice.
stories of recent losses --
de pérdidas recientes...
in the shadow of an affair,
viven a la sombra de una aventura,
25 years like this?
that perhaps these questions
que tal vez estas preguntas
people to cross the line,
gente a cruzar la línea,
an attempt to beat back deadness,
por contrarrestar la falta de vida,
and a lot more about desire:
menos con el sexo y más con el deseo:
desire to feel special,
deseo de sentirse especial,
never have your lover,
that which you can't have.
in open relationships,
en las relaciones abiertas,
about monogamy is not the same
hablar de monogamia
that even when we have
que incluso cuando tenemos
otras parejas sexuales,
by the power of the forbidden,
el poder de lo prohibido;
we are not supposed to do,
no se supone que debemos hacer,
doing what we want to.
realmente lo que deseamos.
quite a few of my patients
cantidad de mis pacientes
into their relationships
the imagination and the verve
la imaginación y el brío
de una aventura?
son un toque de difuntos
already dying on the vine.
into new possibilities.
a nuevas posibilidades.
affairs stay together.
permanecen juntas,
to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
una crisis en una oportunidad.
into a generative experience.
en una experiencia generativa.
more so for the deceived partner,
en la pareja engañada,
to uphold the status quo
el status quo
for them that well, either.
bien para ellos tampoco.
that may actually lead to a new order,
puede dar lugar a un nuevo orden,
with honesty and openness
con honestidad y apertura
sexually indifferent
so lustfully voracious,
of loss will rekindle desire,
reavivará el deseo,
new kind of truth.
completamente nuevo.
that couples can do?
pueden hacer las parejas?
que la curación empieza
acknowledges their wrongdoing.
important act of expressing
e importante de expresar
por herir a su esposa.
of people who have affairs
de quienes tienen aventuras
for hurting their partner,
por herir a su pareja,
for the experience of the affair itself.
la experiencia de la aventura en sí.
vigil for the relationship.
la vigilia por la relación.
el protector de los límites.
the protector of the boundaries.
de la obsesión,
that the affair isn't forgotten,
de que la aventura no se olvida,
a restaurar la confianza.
begins to restore trust.
that bring back a sense of self-worth,
recuperar el sentido de autoestima,
and with friends and activities
and meaning and identity.
el sentido y la identidad.
to mine for the sordid details --
en los detalles sórdidos...
than me in bed? --
que yo en la cama?
the investigative questions,
preguntas de investigación,
the meaning and the motives --
or experience there
when you came home?
and they're not going away.
para quedarse, y no se irán.
of black and white and good and bad,
de blanco y negro, bueno y malo,
comes in many forms.
viene en muchas formas.
that we betray our partner:
traicionar a nuestra pareja:
one way to hurt a partner.
manera de hacer daño a una pareja.
la víctima de una aventura
she must be pro-affair.
a favor de las aventuras.
can come out of an affair,
puede salir de una aventura,
this very strange question:
recommend you have an affair
who have been ill
la gente que ha estado enferma
has yielded them a new perspective.
les ha dado una nueva perspectiva.
since I arrived at this conference
desde que llegué a esta conferencia
about infidelity is, for or against?
infidelidad es ¿a favor o en contra?
una doble perspectiva:
por el otro...
and what it meant for me.
y lo que significó para mí.
in the aftermath of an affair
luego de una aventura
two or three relationships
dos o tres relaciones,
to do it with the same person.
con la misma persona.
a second one together?
matrimonio juntos?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Esther Perel - Relationship therapistPsychotherapist Esther Perel is changing the conversation on what it means to be in love and have a fulfilling sex life.
Why you should listen
For the first time in human history, couples aren’t having sex just to have kids; there’s room for sustained desire and long-term sexual relationships. But how? Perel, a licensed marriage and family therapist with a practice in New York, travels the world to help people answer this question. For her research she works across cultures and is fluent in nine languages. She coaches, consults and speaks regularly on erotic intelligence, trauma, sexual honesty and conflict resolution. She is the author of Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic. Her latest work focuses on infidelity: what it is, why happy people do it and how couples can recover from it. She aims to locate this very personal experience within a larger cultural context.
Esther Perel | Speaker | TED.com